American Dream

8 December 2011

“The Great Gatsby“ living The American Dream

The Great American Dream during the 1920´s was about people that wanted to

have a better life, not to be stopped by how rich their families were and their

expectation for its future. In The Great Gatsby, a famous novel by F. Scott

Fitzgerald, the topic of The American Dream isinvestigated. The main character Jay

Gatsby represents that The American Dream was killed, symbolizing the

pessimistic belief that The American Dream is dead. The author shows that if you try

to reach a better life, the consecuences can de bad if you do it without moral.

Fitzgerald believes that The American Dream has been twisted and corrupted into an

uncontrolled desire for pleasure andmoney.

Fitzgerald demostrates how a dream can become corrupted with wealth power and

expensive things.The American Dream is an idea, and ideas can´t be tainted but men

can, by wealth, power etc. The dream becomes successful when it is made by hard

work. For Gatsby it was such the despair of achieving that dream, that he made

fortune in bootlegging thanks to his associationwith gangsters, insted of working

hard so that he can get Daisy, the woman that represents money and high society, all

that Gatsby wants to have. It shows that for Gatsby, Daisy´s voice contains the

promise of a great wealth, when “her voice was full of money- that was the

inexhaustible charm, that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals song in it“

(115). AlsoDaisy represents both, material success and the rot that wealth can

cause, when Gatsby tried to swin the wheel and he said that of course he will say he
was(137); Daisy is careless with people’s life. She lets Gatsby take the blame for her

unintentional murder of Myrtle Wilson. Gatsby tried to reach his goal when “he

stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… anddistinguished

nothing except a single green light“ (26). When a dream is pure, motivation and self

discipline are present, but What happened to The American Dream in 1920’s, was

that the dream of a better life had been tainted by superficiality and material things.

The American Dream is the aspiration to live the “American lifestyle“. The American

lifestyle is based on a desirefor comfort. Therefore, the American Dream suggested

that U.S.A was a land of opportunities; if U.S.A is a land of achievement for anyone,

of opportunities, then. Necessarily there must be an atmosphere of freedom, wealth,

comfort, consuption, technology and production to do that. For many immigrants the

statue of liberty was the first thing that they saw when they arrived to U.S.A,and it

means freedom. The statue of liberty is a symbol of the United States and The

American Dream. At the begginig of the story Wilson asked Tom when is Tom going

to sell him a car (28). It shows that The American Dream was about anyone raised or

immigrated to the U.S.A could have the opportunity to access and use technology

that allows facilities, also to have a consuptioncapacity that allows to live according

to“ the American way of life.“ Gatsby wants to have a huge house that shows how

wealthy is he, “My house looks well, doesn’t it… see how the whole front of it catches

the light“(87) He is really proud of his house and Daisy can’t believe that “that huge

place there?“(87) is his house. Sometimes, immigrants to America do not have theconditions to live that kind of life, with huge houses. Thats why in the novel they say

that “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate

about being peasantry.“(86)

The Great American Dream has always been a dream to be able to get married,

own a house, earn a decent living, raise children and mantain happiness but the

dream became so focused...